The Climb - part 4

hello again. time has gotten away from me as i have failed to keep writing about the rest of the climb. my bad. also, i have recently gotten my butt chewed in an e-mail, so i'd better get to writing some more!

on a side note, last night was another full moon, so i think maybe i was just waiting for the lunar cycle to come back around to help get me in the zone!(really?) so...day 5.

we started day 5 with the long day from shira 2 to lava tower to the barranco camp behind us, and, although the "wall" was daunting before us, the prospect of a shorter day was encouraging. watching the porters hustle up the wall with gear on their backs and heads was quite a specticle. the trail up the barranco wall is steep and narrow and climbs nearly 1000 feet before your eyes. as the trail narrowed, the groups of climbers slowed to a near stop at several especially steep and tricky parts of the trail. and though the trail was difficult for brad, it gave us hope to be able to stay close to the "main pack" of people that littered the trail. at one point there was a stoppage of everyone heading up the trail. shortly, like a slow line of ants, the steady movement up the wall began again, but not before a porter hustled past us going back down. we came to find out that on one of the more difficult switchbacks, that exposed the trail to a fairly sharp edge, the porter had lost the balance of the bag he was balancing on his head and the bag went over the edge and ended up at the bottom of the wall. it was to be a long day for that porter...our day, also, had just begun. through sheer determination brad made it up the wall. although we had been passed by most of the other groups during the morning's climb, we had made it! and there were only a couple times, with drop offs only a step away, that brad said he was going to have a few choice words for brian and i IF we ever make it to camp! the top of the wall was a big relief, and our guide said it wasn't too far to camp, "just over the ridge". so we walked. most of the footing that was on a level or uphill slope wasn't too bad, it was the downhill slopes that were tricky. but eventually, after hiking though some absolutely beautiful areas with the upper mountain and its glaciers looming above us, we came in sight of the camp. this was good. the tents didn't look too far away. we might be there in 20 minutes or so. what we didn't see was that the trail first dropped into a 750 ft steep canyon before heading straight up the other side before reaching camp. so...2 1/2 hours, of slick, loose rock on the steep trail with misty clouds around us that make seeing ANYTHING a challenge for brad, later, we entered camp. though it was nice to be in camp, it had been another long. and on a day that was supposed to be easy. the tension in brad's eyes was becoming more of a problem, and getting into camp, once again, so late was discouraging for him. it was time for alittle soul searching. and let me tell you it was a good place for it! this was the karangu hut. a rocky and slopey camp, but the setting was spectacular. the "mist" from our climb that day was actually a layer of clouds that was banked just below the camp. and as the sun crept slowly toward the western horizon the light would glow of the tops of the clouds (that were just sitting there below us) like colored lights shining on cotton balls. kibo was our backdrop to the north as it sat there staring down at us, welcoming us and watching over us at the new camp. this was a place of God, and we all knew it. sitting there, exhausted, a bit discouraged, (and starting to get a bit ripe:)),...there was a peace let us know that everything would be alright. ... and we slept.